Thomas de Baldeswell purchased entrance to the
Lynn franchise in 1383. Over the decade that followed he played the usual
minor role in public affairs (tax assessor, elector) but never rose beyond
the middle rank of burgess society. The name of William de Baldeswell
is not found in Lynn records; the reference to that name in the 1392-93
customs account may be
a transcription error (although this is unlikely from the context), or
he may have been a junior member of the Lynn family, or not a Lynn resident
at all.

Ralph de Bedingham entered the franchise at Lynn in 1372,
having completed his apprenticeship to Walter de Dunton, a probable
merchant. Ralph certainly was being described as a merchant by
the early fifteenth century. His international trading activities
are documented between 1391 and 1412: he was exporting cloth, victuals
and lumber and importing dried fish and a wide range of lumber. He
served four terms as borough chamberlain and sat among the jurats for
most of the period from 1390 to 1413. In 1412 he suffered a series of
financial setbacks, losing one cargo of imports to a storm and two others
to pirates, and in 1413 he was deposed as jurat by the reform party then
in political ascendancy. However, he appears to have overcome these
adversities and been restored to jurat ranks 1418-26, after which he is
heard of no more  the last reference being a summons to the
Exchequer to answer a house-breaking charge.

The individual identified in the 1392-93
customs account as
Edward Belleyett' was properly Edmund Belleyetere, the
most prominent member of a local family of bell-founders. Edmund,
however, had expanded beyond family tradition to become a merchant and
vintner, having been apprenticed to John de Brunham,
father of the famous Margery Kempe, although Edmund was a generation
older and had entered the franchise in his mid-twenties, in 1364, ten
years before Margery was born. Edmund had a long (died ca.1414) and
distinguished career in both local government  serving as jurat
for most of the period between 1370 and 1413, three times as mayor during
the 1390s, and alderman of the merchant gild for a good part of
the subsequent decade  and in the customs service (1382-1404) most
notably as Deputy Butler. His mercantile activities are first documented
in 1364, when he took £50 and woollen cloth to Gascony, with a view
to buying wine for import. By the 1390s, he had refocused his attentions
northward and was importing herring, dried fish, iron, beaver pelts, wax,
tar, lumber, and ashes, although he remained involved in the wine trade.
He continued to be active in commerce until the end of his life 
pirates captured one of his cargoes, Norway-bound, in 1412. Some of
his wealth he invested in buying estates in the vicinity of Lynn, and
he had a manor-house on the opposite side of the Ouse from the borough.

Thomas de Bermyngham was probably a member of a Lynn
family that became more prominent in the fifteenth century. He may
perhaps have been the same as the fuller who served as a councillor
several times in the 1420s and '30s (although this was more likely
a member of a later generation).

William Berry of Holme-next-the-sea (15 miles north
of Lynn) was a franchise entrant of 1385, but receives few mentions in
Lynn borough records thereafter.

Henry de Betele was a member of one of the leading
Lynn families of the fourteenth century. His father Hugh, a merchant
who dealt in victuals (sometimes on behalf of the king), had been mayor
in 1342/43 and co-owned a ship with his brother Henry, a slightly less
prominent townsman; both succumbed to the first outbreak of plague.
The Henry whose trading is evidenced in the 1392-93
customs account
was born in 1339, entered the franchise at age 21 and followed his
father's footsteps into commerce and politics. He first became a jurat
in 1369 and, apart from a faux pas which led to his disgrace and
disfranchisement for a year (1375/76), remained so for most of the period
up to 1393. He was mayor in 1382/83 and alderman of the merchant gild
1390-93. His disappearance from the records in 1393 probably marks
retirement or death. In 1374 he was exporting oats and beer to Zeeland,
but only the 1392-93 account reflects his diversification into cloth,
for surviving customs records from 1390-92 show no activity from him.

Although described as a vintner in August 1364, at the time he obtained a
licence from the king to take to Gascony £50 in cash and the same
in cloth in order to buy wine, William de Bitering is more
often seen trading in victuals; however, this is because it is his exports
that are most in evidence, not his imports. We first hear of him in
1336/37 when he travelled to Stamford on community business (perhaps
nothing more than message-bearing), and his earliest known mercantile
activity is in 1337  three years before he became a member of Lynn's
merchant gild  when he partnered with Simon de Bitering to export
200 weys of white English salt to Germany; Lynn's early development owed
much to its saltworks. Simon was a merchant of the previous generation
but perhaps not a close relative, for his will (1349) left nothing
to William, nor was the latter an executor, only coadjutor of the
executors; the surname was present in Lynn from the beginning of
that century, and the family's roots can apparently be traced to
Cambridgeshire. The following year William and Simon exported
the same amount of salt to Germany, this time in partnership with
Hugh Betele, all three described as "king's
merchants". In 1347 he is seen shipping two large cargoes of wheat and
beans, again through partnerships; the same year finds him selling 6 tuns
of wine to the King's Butler, who happened to be fellow-townsman
John Wesenham. In 1353 he was licenced to send
wheat to Holland or Zealand, in 1355 wheat and ale, and in 1357 wheat to
Gascony. In 1364 a more diversified cargo of wheat, barley, beans, peas
and ale was sent to Holland. William was wealthy enough to own a ship
by 1346, when he was reimbursed by the community for the expenses of making
it available for royal service; his local tax assessment in 1357/58 was
triple the average paid by townsmen. In 1356 he had been one of the
merchants of the realm summoned by the king to attend a special assembly.
His first known role in local government was as chamberlain in 1339/40, and
he was one of the jurats for most of the period from 1346-69. His first
term as mayor began in 1352, he was re-elected the following year, and then
for an unprecedented third consecutive term  on that occasion he
begged off, but again served in 1359/60 and 1366/67. His prominence in
the community is also evidenced by his role as alderman of the merchant
gild 1361-69. He also held posts in the royal customs administration, as
a collector of the customs on wool in the mid-1340s (Simon de Bitering
having held the post immediately before him) and early 1350s, and as
Deputy Butler 1350-59, as well as holding the odd royal commission. At
his death in 1369, he left a widow, Juliana, a probably underage son John
(who followed in William's footsteps as a merchant and jurat, but never
quite achieved his father's prominence), and two daughters of whom one
had become a nun at Carrow Abbey, near Norwich. A late eighteenth century
antiquarian reported seeing his tomb and its brass, depicting him and
Juliana, in St. Nicholas' church.

William Blakeney entered the franchise at Lynn in 1388,
when referred to as a mariner. He was evidently of age (probably barely)
in 1376 when he disposed of a piece of property from his inheritance.
It was perhaps as a factor of a Lynn merchant (just possibly
Henry de Betele or John Waryn,
who were his guarantors for paying his entrance fine), that he was
in Prussia when he received a beating. But more likely he was there
as a ship's master, for in 1387 the king permitted his ship to be freed
from arrest (for use in the navy), in order that it could carry
a shipment of wool to Middelburg. He was in 1391 using the same ship
to import herring  7 last for re-sale and 4 last for his household
use  and export cloth. In 1396, in a different ship which he owned,
he exported a small amount of cloth. In 1398 he was in trouble for
having captured a Scottish ship at a time of truce with Scotland. He
was elected chamberlain in 1407/08 but then opted to side with the
reform party in the years that followed; however, his mercantile
associations made him acceptable to the ruling elite when they regained
control of government and he served as a constable 1416-19 and again
chamberlain in 1417/18, dying shortly after.

John Blaunche entered the franchise at Lynn in 1370,
as a cooper. It would be tempting to assume that the name of
John White, which also appears in the 1392-93
customs account,
was an alternate version of his name. However, in
a customs record of 1391 both Blaunche and White had cargoes in the same
ship on one occasion, and both were mentioned in the same witness list
of 1375, making it clear they were separate individuals. Neither man
had much role in local government. In 1391, Blaunche was importing
herring, sturgeon, lumber, iron, wax, beer, tar, and ashes, while White
was involved in only one shipment, importing lumber, tar, iron, and
ashes. However, White was more active in exporting cloth that year than
in 1392, while Blaunche does not appear to have been active at all. Both
were inactive by the end of the decade. White may have been the shipwright
of that name who, in 1377/78 was constructing vessels for the town.

John Bolt purchased entrance to the franchise at Lynn
in 1382 and became a member of the merchant gild three years later,
having already been given modest community responsibility, as tax assessor
and as a member of a committee to search out lepers and have them removed
from the town. In the early 1390s we find him exporting cloth and being
fined on more than one occasion for breaking the assizes of ale and wine;
he was evidently doing business in the Baltic, for the ship he owned had
been built in Gdansk and he appears to have married a woman from the same
location (his son Robert later being described as the heir of a Gdansk
man, Edmund Faukes). It was at the same period
that he entered the ranks of the jurats, having already served his
'apprenticeship' as chamberlain in 1388/89. He was a jurat throughout
the period of political strife, during the reign of Henry V, and up
until 1424, around which time he died. He was thus associated with
the potentiores opposed by the
Petypas faction, and as such was
one of that group attacked in August 1415 while holding meeting in
a tavern. His wife Margaret predeceased him, for in 1416/17 he
purchased for her soul the spiritual benefits of membership in the
merchant gild. His son was active in the customs service in the
1430s, but was not otherwise prominent.

Robert de Botkesham acquired freeman's status at Lynn
in 1372, by right of his father Thomas de Botkesham, one of Lynn's
leading merchants. Since John de Botkesham acquired
the same status immediately afterwards, without fine, it is probable that
he was a younger brother of Robert. Both men followed their father into
jurat ranks, Robert remaining there for most of the period 1378 to 1403
(and probably to 1410) and John from 1391 to at least 1403;
Robert alone followed his father into the mayoralty  also
for three terms. Both likewise had brief stints of office in the
customs administration, while Robert was appointed mayor of the Lynn
staple in 1406. There is, however, no indication they partnered in
commercial ventures, although both were all-purpose merchants dealing
in similar goods: exporting cloth, grain, and victuals, and importing
herring, dried fish, beaver pelts, iron, ashes, lumber, tar, flax, canvas,
yarn, and probably wine. Robert was evidently the more prosperous of
the pair, and as such had that much more of a vested interest in
the status quo, which helps explain why he was the most prominent among
the leaders of the potentiores (anti-reform) party during the
political strife which began in earnest
during Robert's mayoralty of 1410/11; although there may have been some
personal grudge involved too, for the reformers' leader was a former
apprentice of John de Botkesham. Robert died during the course of
the conflict (although there is no intimation of foul play), while
John had already faded from the scene (and probably died) years earlier.

Thomas de Botkesham was to become one of
the leading townsmen and merchants of the generation following that
of William de Bitering. He entered the franchise
in 1346 through apprenticeship; his master Humphrey de Wyken had
died before Thomas could complete the final 6 months of his term,
but the borough authorities waived that technicality. He had evidently
already made something of a mark, and in 1350/51, as an elector, entered
jurat ranks for the first time. In 1352/53 he served as chamberlain.
Thereafter he was a jurat for almost the entire period up to 1390. During
that period he served three mayoral terms (1357/58, 1363/64, and 1369/70).
In 1354 he was exporting malt, flour, salt and cloth to Norway and Germany,
to trade for fish, and the following year was exporting wheat, ale and
cloth. The mid-1360s have left evidence of more of his mercantile
activities, again exporting victuals to Flanders, Zeeland, Holland, Gascony
and Norway. In 1372 he was shipping hides from northern England to Lynn,
and was in the same year (as well as later in the decade) supplying
the borough with iron, tar, timber and other materials for building barges.
He was alderman of the merchant gld from 1370 to 1389, and became
mayor of the staple at Lynn in 1373. He died ca.1389/90. The Thomas
Botkesham who was mayor of Lynn in 1433/34 may have been a grandson,
although I have not found evidence of any direct link.

John de Brandon, one of the exporters most frequently
mentioned in the customs
account of 1392-93, appears already to have
been engaged in commerce, improperly, in 1372 when he was obliged to
become a freeman in consequence. In 1383 he was exporting grain to
Norway, and his mercantile involvements with that country, Prussia and
the Low Countries are well-documented between 1388 and 1406: he was
heavily involved in exporting cloth, hides and grain, while importing
soap, garlic, herring, eels, sturgeon, and probably wine and tiles.
By 1400 he had his own ship which was used not only for legitimate
commerce, but also for fighting the Scots, and for piracy. He served
in several posts in the customs service between 1389 and 1408 and was
mayor of the Lynn staple 1390-91. In urban administration, he was a
jurat for most of the period between 1380-1413, and mayor of Lynn
in 1409/10.

Ancelm Braunch was probably some relation
of Robert Braunch, but the
proximity is unknown. He purchased entrance to the franchise in1350,
at the beginning of Robert's first mayoralty. Despite having married the
widow of former mayor John de Massingham, his career was less
distinguished than that of Robert. He served as chamberlain in 1353/54,
and was elected a jurat the following year, continuing in that role up to
1362. Perhaps his life exemption from offices and assizes obtained
in 1352 reflects a low interest in politics. From 1346 he was also
one of the king's searchers of ships. In 1354 he was involved
with the Cokesfords and
John de Sustede in a partnership
to export ale and wheat to the Low Countries, and in 1359
received licence in his own right to export the same kind of goods
to the Low Countries or English-held France.

John Braunch became a member of the merchant gild in 1293.
He was already well-to-do, for the previous year his goods had been valued
(for purposes of a local tax assessment) at £12. Further valuations
have survived for 1298, 1299, 1302, 1303, and 1305 when varying between
£8 (below the average) and £20 in the 1300s. In a national tax
levied in 1332 his goods were valued at £6.16s.8d, but the basis for
the valuation was different from that for local taxes, and John's
assessment on this occasion was well above the average of £2.19s.1d.
Mercantile activities may do much to explain the fluctuations in local tax
assessments. In 1308 and 1313 he is seen exporting wool. In 1309 he was
fined for blocking the marketplace with his merchandize; during the same
session, his wife was fined for breaking the ale assize. John was again
fined for a similar offence in 1328, when his timber occupied excessive
space in the Tuesday Market. He
appears to have lived in Damgate,
probably near the market end. That timber had long been an item in which
he dealt is suggested by the fact that in 1303 he and Richard de Swanton
had sold planks to the king's commissioners, for purposes of constructing
pontoons. John did his duty to the community, but no more: his roles in
local government began with that of tax assessor (1301 and again in 1305);
he served as chamberlain in 1304/05, as jurat the following year, being
seen again in the latter role in 1322/23, and as an auditor of the town
financial accounts in 1320. He likewise served the merchant gild, as a
scabin, in 1306/07 and 1316/17.

The Thomas Attelburgh mentioned in the 1392-93
customs account may
perhaps have been a Lynn man, for there is a fleeting reference, among
a list of leading townsmen, in February 1392 to one with the name of
Thomas Attlebrigge. This would have been the merchant more usually
referred to as Thomas atte Brigge, a jurat for most
of the period from 1393 to his death in 1422 (except for interruption
during the governmental tenure of the reform party), and mayor in
1402/03 and 1407/08. After purchasing the franchise in October 1390,
his mercantile activities are almost immediately evidenced: in 1391
he was exporting cloth and importing herring; probably he was trading
before entering the franchise, as he was unable to claim free entrance
by patrimony, even though his father Peter had become a freeman in 1349.
He is again seen exporting cloth in 1394, but wool and woolfells between
1399 and 1403, and importing string in 1402 and (in partnerships,
including with his brother James) herring, eels, sturgeon, iron and wine
in 1406. Like John Wentworth, he ran afoul of
the Bishop's officers in Lynn during one of his mayoralties, and became
one of the chief opponents of the reform party.

The Brunham family was one of the most powerful in Lynn at this period,
and two generations are represented in the 1392-93
customs account.
John de Brunham's father Ralph had been of above-average
means and had served as jurat in the 1340s. John entered the franchise
in 1353 and, after a term as chamberlain in 1355/56, the jurat ranks only
four years later, remaining therein until at least 1403 and probably to
1412, except for when he served again as chamberlain and during 5
mayoralties  the first in 1370/71 and the last in 1391/92. By
1398 he had become alderman of the merchant gild, in which post he
remained until about 1406. His longevity was exceptional and the
depth of experience he had helps explain
why he was kept among the jurats until shortly before his death in 1413.
As early as 1383 he was obtaining an exemption from jury-duty or any
unwanted offices on the excuse of being "too old to labour"; far more
credible was his excuse for non-attendance at a council meeting of
December 1412 that he was bed-ridden. One of the targets of the
complaints of the reform party in 1411/12, he was probably semi-retired
at that point and played little active part in the opposition to
the reformers. His wide-ranging commercial activities are evidenced
between 1352, when he was fined for
regrating bread and 1397, when
he was making money from the operation of a ferry-boat (leased from
the merchant gild). His property included a quay and several shops.
By 1357/58 his local tax assessment was already twice the average. In
1377/78 he sold herring to the community; in 1385/86 he bought a
millstone from the merchant gild; in 1392/93 he sold iron to the
Corpus Christi gild. Although in 1392 he exported only a shipment of
corn, in 1391 he was exporting cloth and lumber, and cloth again in 1395.
Despite all this, John de Brunham is best known today as the father of
Margery Kempe.

John's son Robert de Brunham might have equalled
the prominence of his father, had he lived as long. Unaccountably,
there is no record of Robert's franchise entrance at Lynn, but he was
one of several men fined in February 1388 for selling by retail 
possibly a pressure tactic to persuade them to become freemen; Robert,
who was on that occasion described as a vintner, was by far the most
heavily fined. Vintner was evidently what he remained, for in 1400 he
was fined for selling red and white wine contrary to terms of the assize,
and he was heavily fined in 1403 for
regrating 16 tuns of wine,
and again in 1404 with regard to a further 6 tuns. In 1405-06 he
imported several shipments of red wine. In 1408 the community was 100s.
in debt to him for wine he supplied for official functions, and in 1412
we finally have a reference to his tavern. However, like all good
merchants, he diversified: in 1391 he was exporting cloth, furniture,
and lumber, and in 1405 and 1406 was partnering with others in the export
of grain. That he was a ship-owner is suggested by his complaint of
theft of an anchor in 1405. His career in public administration was
similar to his father's, but took place mostly in the 1400s and included
constable of the Lynn staple (a role his father had also held), jurat
from at least 1411 to at least 1420, two elections as mayor, and
the aldermanship of the merchant gild from 1414-1419. He was one of
the members of the ruling class most active in the opposition to
the reform party and, as a result, was roughly treated when he
(constitutionally, as alderman) tried to assume the mayoralty in 1415
after the death in office of John Lakinghithe;
the reform party had forced him to surrender the mayoral seal and key
to the borough treasury and, despite royal writs in support of him,
refused to return them or let him exercise mayoral authority. Die-hard
reformers remained bitter towards him for years. He died at some point
between 1420 and 1422, still a jurat.

William de Brycham was about 40 years old when found
engaged in commerce, in the 1392-93
customs account. He had
already served one term as chamberlain of Lynn, and was at this time
(1391-92) constable of the staple at Lynn. The most prominent part of his
career was ahead of him, however, when he rose into the ranks of the jurats,
but supported the losing cause of the reform
party. His early career was perhaps as a fishmonger or even a
fisherman, and he remained active in the fish trade  being in
trouble in 1413 for forestalling
fish. But, having joined the merchant gild by 1385, from 1390 to 1413
he is seen active in more wide-ranging commerce, exporting cloth and
grain and importing soap, lumber, herring, woad, madder, millstones
(some of which he sold to the merchant gild), pitch and tar, and by 1413
owned his own ship.

At his earliest appearance, in 1319, William de Brynton
(or Bruntone) was already prospering, if we may judge from the fact
that his local tax assessment was well above the average; in the
1332 national subsidy his assessment was the third highest of all
Lynn residents, over four times the average. He purchased membership
in the merchant gild in 1324 and is seen exporting wool to Middelburg
in 1336 and in 1348 suing Rodeland Tiler for 5s. remaining from a debt
due for herring sold him. In 1356 he was summoned by name to attend
a national assembly of merchants; he had already, between 1331
and 1352, been returned by his community to four parliaments and
a special council summoned by the king (1351/52). William's name
is found among the constables on several occasions between 1326
and 1355, he being replaced in June of that year. He served as
mayor in 1341/42, and is found as a jurat for much of the period
between 1342 and 1362. He held for some years the post of
borough coroner, being in that office by ca.1335 and retiring
from it in June 1355, on the grounds of old age and ill health.
In 1357 he obtained a royal grant of life exemption from office
and jury-duty, and in 1357/58 his local tax assessment was only
half the average. Possibly these facts reflect a genuine retirement,
except for him remaining in an advisory status through the town council.
The entrance into the franchise of Thomas de Brynton in 1362 might
mark William's death, but we cannot be sure whether Thomas was
William's heir, as he entered by right of apprenticeship.

John de Bukenham obtained the franchise at Lynn
in 1344 by graduating from his apprenticeship and is afterwards variously
described as taverner, vintner and merchant. An earlier John de Bukenham,
a barker, had entered the franchise in 1300 and was in 1349 described
as "senior", but this does not necessarily mean he was related to the
John of the next generation. Aside from being an elector in 1351, his
election as chamberlain in 1354 was the first known role of responsibility
he held in the borough; he served another term as chamberlain in 1366/67.
By the time of his first election, he was clearly prospering, for in 1354
he acquired three shops and a garden in
Pillory Lane, next to property
he already owned; at unknown date he also held property a little further
south on Jews Lane. In 1368 he acquired a shop with a cellar at the corner
of Mercer Row and
Purfleet Lane. In December
of that year he was exporting (through a partnership) 100 tuns of ale
and 200 qt. of malt. In 1364 he received exactly the same permission
as Gunton and Bitering, to take cash and cloth to Gascony to buy wine.
On several occasions between 1349 and 1375 he was fined for breaking
the assize of wine, and his wife Agnes for infringing the ale assize.
He was a jurat in 1363/64 and from 1371-74, and one of the
constables (an office reflecting his
importance in the community) from 1370 on; the appointment of
someone else to his constabulary in 1382 probably marks his death.

A series of men named John de Bukworth were in evidence
in Lynn throughout the fourteenth century. One was a jurat in the 1320s,
another was one of the keepers of the town gates in the 1340s. The
best-known carrier of the name was from the middle rank of urban society
and mainly active in the second decade of the fifteenth century.
Affiliated with the reform party, he served in one of its administrations
as chamberlain (and in the same year played a similar financial
administration role in the merchant gild). He was  during the
years of compromise following the defeat of the reformers  brought
into the lower ranks of the jurats and had a post in the customs service,
and in 1419 was nominated by the die-hards of the reform party as mayor,
but was not elected. No record of his entrance to the franchise has
survived, which might place it in the early 1400s, from which we are
missing records. It is likely he who, with partners, exported a large
cloth shipment in 1405. Whether he was the corn exporter of 1392 is more
difficult to say; his partner on that occasion, Adam Borde, does not
appear in Lynn records.

When John Burghard purchased the franchise at Lynn in 1305
he was described as "of Stoke"; the place-name is common and widespread,
but may refer to Stoke-on-Trent, since his lengthy will included bequests of
100s. to be distributed among his poor relations and widows in Stoke and
40s. among the same in Burton. He was probably already prospering as a
wool merchant  in 1322 he was to be one of four Lynn men summoned
by the king to attend a council of the country's greatest wool merchants
 and found citizenship at Lynn convenient because it was an important
export centre. Whether he moved permanently there at first is less certain.
He did not bother to join its merchant gild until 1312/13, and it was in
the years that followed that he is seen acquiring properties
there, including a number of rents  which would provide him with a
certain guaranteed income, as a buttress against the larger but less
certain revenues from international commerce. Most of the records we
have of his activities relate to his real estate transactions, and his
will shows that he had acquired, by his death in August 1339, numerous
properties throughout the town, including a large number of selds (some
at least larger than stalls, for they had courtyards associated), and two
quays on the Purfleet. Despite this, it
is not certain where his personal residence was, but probably in the lane
running east off Briggate
on the north side of the Purfleet, for this was known for a while as
Burghard's Lane. In the 1332 lay
subsidy, he had the third highest assessment of any Lynn townsman and,
although his commercial activities are little documented, evidently
remained an important player in the wool trade up to his death, for
in that same year the king acknowledged a debt of over £34 to John,
for wool purveyed from him, and he is seen to have sheep-farms at several
villages within a few miles of Lynn. Not surprisingly, he numbered among
the ranks of the jurats by 1322 (lists of the council being scarce at that
period), and served as mayor in 1326/27, 1332/33, and less certainly
1337/38. He was survived by his widow, Alice, three sons  none of
whom appears to have amounted to much (one possibly became a cleric
and studied at Cambridge), and two daughters. One of the latter, Margaret
Kenynghale, gave an important boost to the
borough coffers by bequeathing the community and merchant gild the
properties her father had left her, in return for them holding an annual
obit for his soul; this was still being celebrated in 1424/25, when it was
ordered that mayor, jurats, councillors and chamberlains attend the
obit or pay a 12d. fine.

Robert Cokerell is another of the middle-ranking traders
of Lynn. Although he imported a large quantity of dried fish and a small
quantity of oil in 1391 (exporting cloth in the same year), he did not
even bother to become a member of the town's merchant gild until 1396.
After that date we have glimpses of his commercial activity: in 1400 he
was renting two cellars by the quayside and was fined for breaking
the assize of wine, and in 1402 he was importing garlic. Apart from
one term as chamberlain, he played no part in borough administration.

Hamon de Cokesford entered the merchant gild in 1320
and served as one of its scabins 1339-41. He was a jurat in1349/50 and
the following year, because the electors (of whom he was one) were
joined with others to form the full council. John de Cokesford
and Robert de Cokesford were more prominent members of the family
(if indeed all were related), and Hamon does not seem to have
been as well-to-do, nor is there evidence of any significant
mercantile activities.

Although the entrance of John de Cokesford into
the gild merchant in 1317, by purchase, might appear to mark the beginning
of his career, he had been briefly seen four years earlier, among those
accused by Robert de Monthalt of a
mob assault upon him, and that his local tax assessment in 1319 was
over three times the average suggests his business affairs were prospering.
That business was probably the usual trade in victuals that was
the backbone of many mercantile operations; in 1328 he was fined
for forestalling herring, in 1330 was capitalizing on the butchery
of a beached whale, and in 1335, 1354 and 1355 is seen exporting
grain and ale to the Low Countries. The 1354 venture was a partnership
with Robert de Cokesford, Ancelm Braunch and
John de Sustede. There are hints he made have had
a side-business as an attorney. Chamberlain in 1319/20, he was frequently
constable during the first half of Edward III's reign. He held three
terms as mayor between 1339 and 1346 and also served the merchant gild
as a scabin 1337-39. He was first jurat in 1325/26, again in 1342/43,
and for most of the period from 1347.

Robert de Cokesford entered the merchant gild
by patrimony in 1329; this may indicate him as a son of
John de Cokesford, with whom he was a partner in an export venture
in 1354. Possibly like John, he seems to have mixed commerce and
legal business as the way to earn a livelihood; at least he appears
to have acted as the borough attorney on several occasions, and fees
paid him in 1348/49 and 1356/57 have the look of retainers. It was
perhaps in this role that he was returned to the parliament of 1346,
during which he attended the funeral of fellow-burgess Thomas de Folsham
in London  this later proving to be a fraud, Thomas
having faked his death to try to escape his debtors, but there is
no indication Robert was aware of the deceit. He was jurat for most
of the period from 1350 to 1368, and served the king as Deputy Butler
at Lynn from 1347 to 1350, with a brief overlapping stint as
collector of tunnage and poundage (1350-51). In 1355 and 1363
we see him exporting ale. He died in 1369, leaving sons
Thomas, who had entered the franchise in 1361, and Robert;
neither figures prominently in town affairs, and Robert is last
heard of going off to serve in the king's army in 1372.

A Thomas Cooke was active in Lynn in the 1320s,
and may have been the clerk of the name who was an executor of
John le Frenge in 1339. But it is doubtful this was the same man as
the elector of
1354. That Thomas le Cooke purchased membership in
the merchant gild in 1340 and served as borough chamberlain
in 1341/42 and again in 1346/47. He is found as one of the
king's bailiffs in Lynn in 1349/50; it may be more than coincidence
that the office of borough bailiff was held by Stephen Cooke
de Tylneye from 1351-61. Thomas was a jurat in 1347/48
(through electorship) and in 1349/50-1350/51, but not thereafter
despite being chosen an elector on 6 other occasions during the 1350s.
He appears to have been a man of modest means and perhaps indeed
a cook, as his surname suggests (he was suing a cook for debt in 1350).

The John Copnote who received a beating in Prussia in
1385 was probably a member of a mercantile family visible in Lynn in
the late fourteenth and early fifteenth family. A Robert Copnote was
a ship-owner in 1391, while a later John Copnote, who entered the lower
council at Lynn in 1418 and the upper council in 1423, had already served
the community (1414/15, the same year in which he entered Lynn's
franchise) in the role of its representative in negotiations with the
king of Denmark regarding disputes between Lynn merchants and
Hanse merchants.

John de Couteshale was possibly a descendant
of Andrew de Couteshale, who was a scabin of the merchant gild
ca.1262 and probably the mayor of ca.1270 simply referred to as "Andrew".
Although John did not enter the merchant gild until 1340, his career was
already well underway: he had been fined for infringing the assize of ale
in 1328 (in 1359 he received the extraordinarily heavy fine of 50s. for
the same offence, suggesting him to have been an incorrigible offender);
his assessment in the national subsidy of 1332 was a little below the
average; he had served his first of two terms as chamberlain in 1334/35;
he was one of the collectors of a royal tax in 1336; and in the same year
he and his wife Cecily are seen acquiring property. By 1340 he was
in fact wealthy enough to own a ship, the participation of which in
a piratical attack on a Flemish vessel had obliged Edward III to pay
heavy compensation; John, to allay the king's wrath, had to take his ship
into royal service for a time in 1342. In 1354 he was exporting, in
partnership with others not of Lynn, ale and wheat to the Low Countries,
and his status as a leading merchant is indicated by him being summoned
to attend a national assembly of merchants in 1356. He was first jurat
(as far as we know) in 1342/43 and held that position for most of the
period between 1350 and 1371; during the same period he was mayor
five times, the first beginning July 1349 to replace John de Massingham,
felled by plague. He was one of Lynn's constables during the late
1340s and '50s, a territorial authority which is also evidenced by the
lengthy will of his widow who died in 1389; this shows that John had
built up a substantial block of property in the
Gresmarket/Jews Lane/Pillory Lane
sector of town, of which ward he was constable. One of John's sons,
Thomas de Couteshale, was prominent in the next
generation, as jurat for most of 1369-96 and three times mayor,
but otherwise the family slipped into obscurity.

John de Creyk purchased entrance to the Lynn franchise
in 1383, on the same day as Thomas Baldeswell.
Like Baldeswell, his status in the middle rank of urban society is
defined by his minor public roles during the late '80s and early '90s
as tax assessor, capital pledge, and elector.

John Crosse was probably an early member of the family
that became established in the lower ranks of the merchant class at Lynn
in the first half of the fifteenth century. Unlike later members of
the family, John features little in borough records, and may perhaps not
even have settled in Lynn by 1392; a skinner of that name entered
the franchise in 1401, but this is not necessarily the cloth exporter.

Thomas de Crowmer entered the franchise at Lynn, as
a cordwainer (leather-worker) in 1385, but was not an especially prominent
member of the community.

Richard de Denby entered the franchise at Lynn in 1377.
Besides exporting cloth, he imported nails, lumber, iron, glass, and
sackcloth; he also dealt in wine (but was not necessarily importing it
himself). He was a jurat for much of the period between 1388 and 1419.

John Draper was probably the franchise entrant of 1381,
a graduated apprentice of merchant
Geoffrey de Fransham. Apart from acting as
member of tax assessment committees on a couple of occasions during
the '80s, he features little in Lynn records.

Merchant and shipowner Geoffrey Drewe senior had been
one of the leading townsmen during the reign of Edward II and was
probably frequently a jurat (although our sparse records from that
period only document a couple of terms, in the 1320s). He may have
been the mayor of that name in 1305/06; or perhaps this was an earlier
generation of the family, since that Geoffrey had entered the merchant
gild by patrimony in 1286, while the Geoffrey known as senior was
still active in travelling on community business into the late 1330s.
Whether Geoffrey senior was the father of Geoffrey Drewe
junior is not known, but some relationship is probable in
what was a large family prominent in the town throughout the
fourteenth century. Geoffrey junior had purchased membership in
the merchant gild in 1317, but his fraternal oath was not administered
at that time because he was underage. He served as gild scabin from
1333 to 1335, and as its alderman from 1349 to at least 1358 and
probably until his death in 1361, when he was succeeded by
William de Bitering. He was a one-time
business partner of Bitering in 1355 and on his deathbed named
William as one of his executors; William refused administration of
the will, but nonetheless took on Geoffrey's son
Thomas Drewe as an apprentice not long afterwards.
Despite (or just perhaps because of) his aldermannic role and his
frequent election as a jurat during the 1340s and '50s, he never held
the mayoralty. His mercantile activities were likely extensive, but
almost our only window onto them is during the period 1354-55, when
on three occasions he was exporting large quantities of ale, wheat,
and peas. His participation in the royal customs service  as
searcher for coin 1335-42, as collector of the wool custom 1342-46
and in the early 1350s, and briefly in 1350 as collector of
tunnage and poundage  would also be a typical indicator
of involvement in long-distance commerce. The borough sent him
as its representative to five parliaments between 1341 and 1358,
and he is frequently seen travelling on community business, usually
to London. At his death, he left a widow, Golditha, sons William
and Thomas, and a daughter Katharine.

One of the customs collectors of 1392-93, John Drewe,
was also one of the exporters listed, involved in 6 shipments during
the year, while other customs documents also show him very active in
international commerce between 1391 and 1393. A member of a prominent
and prolific family of the town (his father, Thomas Drewe senior, had
been mayor), he was frequently a jurat during the 1380s and early '90s,
and was probably at the peak of his career  at about age 45 
at the time of the customs
account of 1392-93. I suspect he was the franchise entrant
of April 1368 who had served out an apprenticeship to merchant
Thomas de Botkesham. He served as
a customs collector at Boston and Lynn from 1388-93, and died ca.1398.

The Thomas Drewe who was one of the town councillors
elected in 1354
was probably a cousin, or even brother, of Geoffrey Drewe junior
(despite not being mentioned in Geoffrey's will). Thomas himself
became known as "senior" from 1371, after Geoffrey's son Thomas
had entered the franchise. Thomas' own son Geoffrey (to add to
the confusion) obtained the franchise by patrimony in 1358,
and another son John in 1372. Thomas first figures in the records
in 1328, when fined for forestalling fish, and his first role in
officialdom was as scabin of the merchant gild (1337-39).
He appears to have been a jurat for the entire period
from 1342 to 1376, with the exception of the years when
he served as king's bailiff (1348/49) or mayor (1345/46,
1362/63, 1368/69) and possibly 1343-45 and 1351/52
(for which years we have no record of who was jurat).
His commercial activities are almost undocumented, except
for one export venture involving grain and ale in 1355 in which
he was partner to Geoffrey Drewe junior, but it is reasonably
safe to assume that he was a merchant.

The Thomas Drewe who made a single
shipment in 1392 was
at closest a cousin to John Drewe, his father being Geoffrey
Drewe junior. Thomas Drewe junior was a jurat for most of the period
from 1375 to at least 1403, and mayor twice in the 1390s; he also held
several posts in the customs service between 1378 and 1392, both at Lynn
and Yarmouth. He obtained the franchise in 1370 as a former apprentice
of vintner William de Bitering (probably
graduated, although Bitering had died in 1369). He is seen exporting
cloth in 1391 and 1395 as well  although not huge amounts in either
case. He probably died ca.1408.

Entering the merchant gild in 1341, a few years later
William de Ellingham was described as a mercer
and the following year (1349) is seen exporting wool; at an unknown
date he was renting from the borough a stall in
Mercer Row. In 1348 he is
found in possession of a row of four shops between
St. James' cemetery and other
property he owned, and in 1359 he held a house in
Skinner's Row, which led towards
St. James'. Like many, if not most, of Lynn's leading merchants, he also
had riverside property which included a quay. He served as chamberlain in
1345/46 and again in 1354/55. He was also jurat for three terms during
the 1350s. It is not clear whether he had any children; there is some
indication that he made his apprentice,
Hugh de Dudlyngton,
his heir, but Hugh may have been a relative.

Henry Elys purchased the franchise at Lynn in 1350.
His commercial activities are little evidenced, although he sold the borough
40s. worth of fish in 1358/59 to provision a community ship. He was elected
to the chamberlain's office in 1354 and again in 1360, and served a few
terms as jurat (1357/58, 1362-66). He does not appear to have risen into
the upper ranks of Lynn townsmen. Perhaps this was due to an early death:
he is not seen after 1366 and we hear of his widow, Matilda, in 1379, while
his son William entered the franchise by right of patrimony not until
1378  either Henry had spent some years in retirement, or William
had been a child when Henry died.

The Edmund Engelond who entered the Lynn franchise in 1371
is most likely the same person as the Edward Yngelond listed in the 1392-93
customs account. He played only minor roles in the
public affairs of the community, and was briefly (1389/90) in the
lower ranks of the jurats. His involvement in international commerce
seems similarly slight.

William Erl was described as a vintner when he obtained
royal licence, in 1364, to take cash and cloth to Gascony to buy £100
worth of wine. In 1377/78 he sold quantities of herring and wine to
the community, and more wine in 1401/02. He was fined in 1375 for
breaking the assizes of ale and wine, and again in 1400, 1403 and 1404
for regrating on each occasion
up to 10 tuns of wine. The cellar he was leasing at the quayside in 1391
from the merchant gild may have been for storing wine. In 1387, however,
he was exporting cloth, lumber and beds through the port of Ipswich. In
local administration, he served three terms as chamberlain, was jurat
for most of the period between 1378 and 1403, as well as acting as coroner
(there being some evidence that he was literate) and constable of
the Lynn staple in the 1390s.

John de Falyate entered the franchise at Lynn in 1345.
He is not much in evidence in the early years of his adult life, although
was fined for breaking the ale assize in 1349 and 1352, and his local tax
assessment in 1357/58 was only a little above the average. Perhaps he
represents an example of a retailer who expanded gradually into
wholesaling. In 1366 he was exporting large quantities of grain, barley,
malt, and ale, and in 1382 a large number of woolfells. He was certainly
a member of the merchant gild by 1385, when he was also renting from
the gild a room on the common quay. With success in business came
acceptance into the ranks of the urban ruling class: his first term as
chamberlain (1357/58) was followed in 1361 by election into jurat ranks
and he spent much of the period until 1388 therein, punctuated notably by
two further terms as chamberlain.

Thomas Faukes entered the franchise at Lynn in 1375.
During the 1390s he was exporting cloth and importing herring. He had
his own quay and probably ran a tavern too. It may have been financial
acumen that resulted in him being chosen as scabin (financial officer)
of the merchant gild in the 1380s, repeatedly as tax assessor in the same
decade, and the unusually high number of four times chamberlain of
the borough. He rose to the lower ranks of the jurats and remained there
for most of the 1390s.

Simon de Feltwell was one of the middle rank of
burgesses. He was resident in Lynn by the time of the 1379 poll tax,
but did not take up the franchise until 1385. His term as chamberlain
(1402/03) was the highest role he assumed in local government, as well
as his last appearance in the records. His shipment mentioned in
the customs account of
1392-93 is the only evidence of any mercantile activity. Two years later
he was fined for regrating ale.

The Thomas Fouler who was captain of one of the ships
mentioned in the 1392-93
customs account was likely
a Lynn resident, as he was still captaining a ship based at Lynn in 1406.
In his chosen occupation, however, it is not surprising that he does not
feature in Lynn records. The single cargo on which he paid customs was
too minor to represent serious mercantile activity.

Although the family was prominent in Lynn in the first half of the
fifteenth century, the scarcity of the surname earlier (other than
bowyer Richard Frank who became a freeman in 1377 and was exporting
wool in 1387) suggests relatively recent immigration or a previous low
status. That Philip Frank had to purchase the franchise
in 1402 would support either hypothesis. In the latter part of his
life he was referred to as a merchant; we know he was involved in
the Norwegian trade, like many fellow townsmen, but his commercial
activities are little documented, although he was several times
fined for infringing the assizes of ale and wine. His
political affiliation at this time was at first with the
Petypas faction, for in April 1411
he was a mainpernor for the future peaceable behaviour of Petypas et
al.; later that year he was one of its parliamentary representatives,
and in 1413 served as one of the community prolocutors. During 1411/12
bowyer John Frank was admitted to the franchise as part of the attempt
by Petypas to pack the electorate with his supporters. However,
although in 1412 appointed to the auditing committee to review financial
accounts of past administrations, Philip was not part of the solid core
of that committee which continued its task after the potentiores
members walked out. His association with the reforming party would have
been to its advantage, for he had already served as chamberlain (1409/10)
and so would have had some inside knowledge of the operations of the
potentiores. But perhaps he was a more moderate member of that
party, for after its collapse he was quickly 'rehabilitated', and went
on to serve as a constable (1418-26), scabin of the merchant gild
(1417/18, 1421-24), councillor (1418-22), jurat (1422-32), and mayor
(1426/27). He died in 1432. It is not clear whether merchant
Richard Frank who, soon after a term as chamberlain,
became a councillor (1433-35), thereafter promoted to the jurats
(1435-63, except for 1457/58, when in disgrace due to arrears of his
mayoral account), and mayor in 1449/50, was Philip's son; he was,
however, nephew of a London grocer of the same name. Richard was
involved in the trade with Prussia and Denmark, and is found in the
1440s exporting cloth, oats, barley, and dried fish, and importing
wine, and at a slightly earlier date involved in the grindstones trade.
His ship was accused of involvement in a piratic act in 1436, and he
was personally accused of conspiring to hijack another ship, of which
he later became the owner.

Richard de Fransham entered the franchise by patrimony
at Lynn in 1384, and was still alive in 1404. Richard achieved no
comparable prominence, either in commerce or in local administration,
to his father Geoffrey de Fransham. Geoffrey was a
merchant in the northern trade and, following immediately after his
first of two terms as chamberlain (1358/59), served as jurat for most
of the 1360s, '70s, and '80s; he also spent a few years as collector
of the wool custom at Lynn in the '80s. He had become a freeman of Lynn
in 1350, through apprenticeship to merchant Thomas de Fransham, himself
briefly a jurat before his career was terminated by the plague. In 1391
Geoffrey was importing herring and may have died around this time
(assuming later references in 1399 and 1407 to be to one of his sons).

The Richard Frere who served as
mayor's (i.e. town) clerk from 1349 to 1369 was probably the
Clenchwarton man who, in 1335, witnessed a deed to property
in Lynn. A Robert Frere is seen in 1337 as master of a ship whose
home port was Lynn. Richard disappears from local records after 1369.
Given that his duties often called for him to travel across East Anglia
or down to London, it may be that he was the Richard Frere whose murder
prompted an order in January 1369 to arrest Adam Baumford of Ospringe
(Kent); Baumford evidently eluded the authorities for he was outlawed
in July, but bought a pardon the following year. Such an unexpected turn
of events may explain why Lynn went without a clerk at the elections in
September 1369, qualified men not always being readily at hand.

When John de Fyncham purchased the franchise
in 1349, he was described as "of Lavenham". Precisely when he moved
to Lynn is unknown. He had already been active in Norfolk in the
king's service: in 1341 as a purveyor of victuals and in 1347 as collector
of a wool-loan and shortly after collector of a tax; these roles were
likely to have brought him into contact with Lynn. Perhaps the depletion of
leading townsmen as a result of the Black Death encouraged him to advance
his prospects by entering Lynn society. In 1351/52 he cut his teeth in
local administration as chamberlain, was returned in 1352 to the first of
four parliaments he attended on behalf of the borough, served his first term
as jurat in 1354/55 and this role was repeated for most of the period up to
1366. In 1367/68 he was mayor. He had also acted as the bishop's steward
in the town 1354-58, and was the king's Deputy Butler 1361-63. His career
shows an administrative, perhaps even legal, bent. But this was combined
with mercantile activities: in 1360, 1364 and 1366 he is seen exporting
grain and/or ale; it may be that some of this was the product of
agricultural lands held outside the town. He is last heard of in 1367,
as one of the commissioners of array in Lynn. His son Adam entered
the franchise in 1375, but himself left no direct heir. The son's name
may suggest a link between John and an earlier Adam de Fincham,
who was a legal advisor to Lynn 1327-32, and Deputy Butler there 1327-28.

Henry Galt entered the Lynn franchise in 1363, on
the same day  and (unusually) apparently in the same transaction
 as Roger Goldsmith. In 1392, Henry
acted as a pledge when Roger took Thomas Davy as his apprentice. Henry's
roles in public affairs between 1363 and 1392 were frequent but minor
(elector, tax-assessor, capital pledge), indicating that he was not in
the top rank of urban society. The possible association with the
Goldsmith family may give a hint to his own occupation.

Geoffrey de Gaysele was apprenticed to merchant
Thomas de Botkesham and, after completing
his term, entered the franchise at Lynn in 1362. His commercial activities
are only slightly evidenced; his single venture in 1392 was parallelled
by a single export cargo of cloth, of comparable value, the previous year.
He is also found trading locally in millstones. Although a jurat for most
of the 1380s and '90s, he never distinguished himself to the point where
he was selected for the mayoralty. He disappears after 1401.

Roger Goldsmith of Dereham purchased entrance to Lynn's
franchise in 1363, in a transaction which (atypically) saw two other men
doing the same thing side-by-side with him: Adam Goldsmith of Dereham
and Henry Galt. Like Galt his public roles did not
extend beyond tax-assessor and capital pledge. When he took on an
apprentice in 1392, his business was described as mercantile.

Simon de Gunton purchased membership in
the merchant gild in 1340. A few years later he is found in possession of
a tavern, but it is not until 1364 that he is explicitly identified as a vintner.
In July of that year he was exporting woad to Zeeland and using the
proceeds to buy wine for import, and in August (exactly as
William de Bitering) was licenced to take
£50 in cash and the same in cloth to Gascony to buy wine,
while in December he planned to export ale and peas to Flanders;
in 1366 he again exported wheat and ale to the Low Countries.
In 1353 he had imported a quantity of rye from Germany but, finding
himself unable to make a profit on it in England, obtained clearance
to try to sell it in Holland or Zealand; the same region was later that
year the target of a cargo of wheat, exported in partnership with
Robert Braunch. He served
the unusually high number of three terms as chamberlain during the 1350s,
was a jurat for most of the period between 1355 and 1376, and was
mayor in 1361/62 and 1364/65, as well as borough coroner from 1355
until his death. In addition he took on the role as the king's Deputy Butler
in the port from1363 to 1369. The life exemption from offices and jury-duty
he obtained in 1366 may indicate a reluctance to hold mayoral office again.
He was dead by February 1376, leaving a widow Felicia but no trace
of any children.

William Halleyate seems almost out of place among
the exporters listed in the
customs account of 1392-93,
for his modest venture in 1392 is the only direct evidence of mercantile
activities. He was fined in 1400 for breaking the assize of ale, but by
itself this is hardly evidence of wholesale trading. His claim to fame is
as one of the leaders of the
reform movement of 1411-15. Yet, in the royal pardon he obtained in 1416
after the collapse of that movement, he is described as "merchant". In 1392
he may not even have been a resident of Lynn borough, and he only took up
the franchise as part of the reform party's attempt to consolidate its
hold on local government. However, during the 1390s he was serving as
a bailiff of one of the Lynn's overlords; and for a few years from 1408
he held posts in the customs service. It is not out of the question that
his mercantile venture in 1392 may have been as factor for some other
party, such as the Bishop of Norwich. On the other hand, perhaps he
was engaged in small-scale international trading throughout his career.

John Herte, the son of Alan Herte of Snettisham, entered
the franchise at Lynn in 1375 after completing an apprentice with
John Drewe. He does not appear to have been highly
active either in commercial or political life of the town.

The John de Howton mentioned in the
customs account of 1392-93
may have been a Lynn man. Although no record of a John de Houton
entering the franchise has survived, entrances of others bearing that
surname, of moderate prominence in Lynn during the second half of
the fourteenth century, are recorded. Most notable was shopkeeper/farmer
Richard de Houton, who was a jurat for most of the 1360s and '70s and
mayor 1376/77. It is, however, possible that the 1392 exporter may have
been the John son of William Mey of Houghton (Cambs.), who was apprenticed
to Richard de Houton and entered the franchise in 1369. A John de Houton
skinner served as constable during several years between 1389 and 1400,
and was briefly in the lower ranks of the jurats in 1390/91.

William Hunderpound was in the early phase of his
merchant's career in 1392. He entered the franchise at Lynn in 1379 after
an apprenticeship to the middle-ranking Nicholas de Narford. Apart from
an infringement of the assize of ale in 1391, the shipment mentioned in
the customs account
of 1392-93 is the first evidence of his commercial activities. In 1395
he is again seen exporting cloth and beds. In the early 1400s he was
importing herring, lumber, and iron. And in 1412 he lost a cargo
to pirates. He was frequently a jurat in the decade and a half
following 1399, and permanently following his term as mayor in 1417/18,
up to December 1427; he died at some point between 1428 and 1430.

Thomas Hunte was a merchant with interests in both Lynn
and London, although it is not evident which came first. That the surname
is in little evidence at Lynn earlier (other than for a Thomas Hunte found
in the role of executor in 1364) and that he purchased the franchise in
April 1402 may be indicative of an immigrant; but not necessarily a
recent one, for he was already in arrears of his taxes due in Lynn,
from 1401/02 and 1398/99. However, it is not until 1418
that he was referred to as "citizen of London, burgess and merchant of
Lynn". His mercantile activities are evidenced by shipments in 1405
and 1406, when exporting oats and cloth and importing (with partners)
dried fish and otter skins  the evident northern connection being
confirmed by his loss to pirates in 1412 of a cargo coming from Norway;
in 1416/17 he sold half a barrel of sturgeon to the community. He served
as one of the merchant gild scabins in 1407/08 and 1411/12. In the
political conflict of that period he was squarely aligned with the
potentiores, but not one of the most active participants until,
in October 1415 after factional politics had resulted in the election of
two rival mayors, the king stepped in an appointed him, as "one zealous
for peace and no disturber", to take the mayoralty. He had been one of the
jurats since at least 1411. Peacemaker or not, he showed no sympathies for
the reformers' aims and continued to meet opposition from them. Elected
mayor again in 1418, towards the close of that term of office the reform
die-hards accused him of persuading the Bishop of Norwich to a new
constitutional composition favouring the potentiores, including
restoring the power of the alderman of the merchant gild to choose the
first four electors. Hunte himself succeeded Robert
Brunham as alderman not long after (1420), remaining in that office
until 1423. He is still mentioned as jurat in June 1424, but may already
have been dead. A later generation of Huntes is seen in Lynn, and one
member was a jurat from 1438-71 (becoming so immediately after entering
the franchise, suggesting respected antecedents).

John Keep entered the franchise at Lynn in 1374, and
became a jurat the following year, a role in which he continued until
1393 (with exception of one year in which he served as chamberlain). He
had probably already established himself somewhat by 1374, for he had at
least one, probably teenaged, son by that date, had served as scabin of
one of the local socio-religious gilds in 1370/71; and a few months before
becoming a freeman he had been appointed the king's
tronager and pesager
at Lynn, an office he held up to his death in 1406. On several occasions
between 1375 and 1400 he was fined for breaking the assizes of ale and wine
and by the mid-'80s was becoming more involved in international commerce.
He is found both importing and exporting lumber, which may provide some
hint as to one facet of his occupation, but like most merchants the goods
in which he dealt were fairly diversified.

The John Kempe listed among the exporters in the
customs account
of 1392-93 was most probably the father-in-law of the famous Margery Kempe
daughter of leading citizen John de Brunham.
Although Kempe's son of the same name was by 1392 an adult and probably
already engaging in trade, he would likely have been distinguished by
the epithet "junior". A John Kempe was in the skinner's trade when he
entered the franchise in 1351, but presumably was just starting out;
in a local tax of 1357/58 his assessment was well below the average,
although he had been able to raise the 40s. entrance fee. This may have
been the future father-in-law of Margery Kempe, or just possibly an even
earlier generation of the family; he is known to have been married by 1352,
which would allow time for an intermediary generation between him and
Margery's husband, but nor is it implausible that his first (or a second)
marriage produced sons in the 1360s. The John Kempe who served a term of
chamberlain (1372/73) may represent an intervening generation, or the 1351
entrant finally prospering and gaining social standing; he became a jurat in
1375 and  apart from a second term as chamberlain  remained such
until 1390, but never progressed beyond the lower ranks. In the group
demand for compensation for the arrest of English merchandize in Prussia in
1385, John made the largest claim of any Lynn merchant (£300) and a
second claim (£100) for goods, including copper, seized at a second
location. In 1391 he was exporting cloth and flax and importing herring,
lumber, iron, copper, and ashes. His involvement in supplying
the construction trade had already been evidenced in 1372/73, when he was
a major supplier of lumber, pitch and tar to the community for the building
of a barge. He died in 1393 (which, if the 1351 franchise entrant, would
have made him about 65-70 years old), his death most likely being what
prompted his sons John and Simon to take up the franchise themselves,
perhaps under pressure, on 28 May of that year, and John's marriage to
Margery Brunham about this time is also unlikely to be coincidental. As men
who had already embarked on mercantile careers (and were very soon thereafter,
as the mature heirs of a man who had given long service to his community,
to be thrust into positions of responsibility in local government) they were
unable to benefit from right of patrimony, and were instead each charged the
regular 40s. entrance fee. Margery's husband failed to live up to his
father's attainments, and Margery's expectations; there is little evidence
of either commercial or political activities in the later part of his life,
nor did Simon, although seen active in international trade, distinguish
himself in the political life of the community; at least this meant that
neither became embroiled in the violent political conflicts of the second
decade of the fifteenth century. Whether the lack of prominence was due
to failings in character, bad luck, or inability to compete in a changing
economic environment is difficult to say. Margery later deplored her
husband's failure to maintain the socio-political status that she
considered her birthright, hinting at a lack of ambition on his part;
she had to pay off some of his debts out of her own money. However, she
having returned impoverished from her famous pilgrimage  itself
undertaken as her own family's fortunes appeared to be foundering, with
the death of her father and political embarrassment of her brother in
the face of a populist revolt  there was a kind of reconciliation
and she later helped tend him after a serious accident and into what
Margery described as his years of "great age" when he became senile
(another hint of an age difference between them).

John de Kenynghale may perhaps have been the son of
merchant Thomas de Kenynghale and Margaret,
daughter of John Burghard (the latter possibly the wealthiest
wool-merchant of Lynn in the 1320s and '30s). More likely John was only
a distant relative, if at all, and may be the John Kenynghale of
Kenninghall (a village in south Norfolk) who entered the franchise
in January 1392 by right of completing his apprenticeship to merchant
Roger Paxman; in that case, his shipment of
April 1392 could represent his first solo investment, or perhaps a venture
as a factor of Paxman. However, there is no indication John prospered
or rose in Lynn society; whether it was he, or the
John de Kenynghale junior who became a freeman in 1405, who served as
bailiff of Lynn's Tolbooth in 1409/10 cannot be said.

John de Lakinghithe was probably born ca.1336 and did
not become a freeman of Lynn until his mid-30s, when he did so reluctantly,
under pressure. At that time his occupation may have focused more on
a craft  perhaps that of cutler  than on commerce. However,
by the 1380s he was beginning to engage in mercantile activities, which
are known in some detail from 1391 to 1405: he exported mainly cloth,
but occasionally other goods, and imported herring, dried fish, eels,
earrings, ashes, canvas, flax, yarn, oil, linen, handmill stones, soap,
and iron. He was among the ranks of the jurats for most of the period
from 1386 to 1413, and in the context of
political conflict of the later period,
by which time he was in old age (but still actively engaging in commerce)
and apparently politically neutral, he was elected mayor as an
unsuccessful effort at compromise by one of the parties, only to die
during his term of office  possibly of old age, but perhaps his
death was hastened by a beating and trampling underfoot he suffered when
the reform faction broke into the guildhall.

John atte Lathe was the son of the vintner
Robert atte Lathe who was mayor of Lynn in 1375/76. John entered
the franchise in 1377; he was not allowed to do so by patrimony but
had to pay an entrance fine, because he had already been engaging in
mercantile activities. After his first term as chamberlain (1378/79)
he became a jurat and remained one for most of the 1380s. Although he
had joined the merchant gild before 1386, his commercial activities are
less well documented than those of his father. It may have been he who
was fined for regrating ale and
keeping a common hostelry in 1404, if he lived that long. However, lack
of other references to him after his inclusion among the merchants
complaining in 1388 of seizure of their goods overseas (unless one counts
the apprenticing of his son, Robert, to
Robert de Waterden in 1391) suggests that
his losses in Prussia may have had a seriously adverse effect on his
career.

Although William Leche was living in Lynn by
the early 1370s, he does not feature much in the borough records and
was only from the middle rank of the burgesses; the only other official
role in which he is found is that of king's bailiff in the town. He
may perhaps have pursued a career in administration; he seems to have
had no personal activity in commerce.

John Lok was coming to the close of his career by
the time of his shipments listed in the
customs account for
1392-93. He died in 1393. He had served as jurat for much of the 1370s
and '80s. All his exports for which we still have record were cloth; he
imported herring and dried fish, ashes, iron, lumber, oil, pitch and tar.
He sold lumber to the community in 1388/89. His cloth export business was
carried on by his widow Margery immediately following his death, and later
by his son William.

Godfrey Loveday entered the franchise at Lynn in 1377,
the son of Walter Loveday of Burnham Thorpe (15 miles north-east of Lynn),
courtesy of his completed apprenticeship to Henry Betele.
He is, however, barely evidenced in Lynn records.

Peter Mafey (a surname probably derived from the French
malfait) had entered the franchise at Lynn in 1372, under pressure,
perhaps because he was already trading. Apart from being one of
the merchants to complain in 1388 about Prussian arrest of English
merchandize in 1385, his shipment listed in the 1392-93
customs account
is the only direct evidence of his involvement in international commerce.
However, in 1373/74 he sold canvas to the community and in 1385/86
lead tiles to the merchant gild, while in 1378 he was fined for
forestalling a tun of oil before
it could be landed from a ship anchored off Lynn's harbour. His
involvement in local administration did not exceed the roles of
capital pledge and chamberlain.

Nicholas Martyn was one of the middle-ranking townsmen
who supported the cause of the reform party, serving as chamberlain during
one of the reform administrations. In that context he was explicitly
described as a merchant. It was probably the same man who served on
the lower council  itself the main legacy of the reforms 
in 1420/21 and 1429/30, on the former occasion being described as
a brewster. Although in the
customs account of
1392-93 he is recorded as exporting beer, in January 1392 he had exported
cloth, and in 1398-99 exported wool and woolfells (some in partnership with
James Nicholasson); in 1405 he was exporting
oats and calf hides. In 1416/17 he sold 8 millstones to the
merchant gild, a man with the same surname happening to be the
gild's clerk at that time. He probably died in the early 1430s.

John Muriell was described as "of London" when he first
appears in connection with Lynn, in March 1405, exporting 600 qt. of wheat
through the port to Holland and Zealand. A further, smaller shipment, of
wheat and oats, followed in June. It appears he decided his interests
would be best served by moving to Lynn, for at some point during the
1405/06 mayoral year he purchased the franchise there; in 1412 we have
another glimpse of his mercantile activities, when his cargo coming from
Norway was captured by pirates. An Alan Meriell had obtained the franchise
through apprenticeship in 1403, but whether this was any relation, I
cannot say. Despite his mercantile interests, he does not seem to have
been accepted into the ruling class within the town, but instead (or
perhaps because of) associated himself with the
reformers and became a trusted member:
in October 1411 and again in October 1412 he was one of those the faction
selected to go to London to defend its position against accusations of the
potentiores, and in June 1414 was one of five men given power of
attorney to represent the community (by which was meant the reform party)
in all pleas. Furthermore he was one of the die-hard supporters of the
party after its fortunes had waned and its original leader, Bartholomew
Petypas had given up the struggle in return for a place among the ruling
elite: in August 1419 he was one of those who objected to the election of
John Wesenham as mayor, proposing fellow reformer
John Bukworth instead; when this was rejected,
he walked out of the guildhall, with his supporters following. Ironically,
he had himself been elected chamberlain on the same occasion. At that
time he was also serving as one of the common councillors, continuing in that
office until 1421, and then serving again from 1424-33. He also held a
constabulary 1425-33 and was again elected as chamberlain in 1433/34, but
his political sentiments probably prevented him from being adopted into
the ranks of the jurats. Despite that, he had a respectable position in
the community. He served as alderman of St. George's Gild in 1419/20 and
1423/24, and in January 1431 was chosen to go to Denmark as the community's
ambassador (but, after a haggle over wages, excused himself from the task).
We last hear of him in May 1434.

Richard Neell was granted freeman's status at Lynn,
apparently gratis, in 1377, because of his service as constable
of the community barge, which suggests he was a seaman. The lack of
other mentions of him in borough records may also reflect that he spent
most of his time away from the town, at sea.

James Nicholasson was a patenmaker (maker of wooden shoes)
by trade, and may be represented in the
customs account of 1392-93
not only under his patronymic surname but also as James Patynmaker 
note that both men were trading in calf skins. He had not yet become
a freeman of Lynn, doing so in 1395, yet had been active in international
commerce since 1387, when he was exporting woolfells. His mercantile
activities continue to be well documented up to 1405, and there is
reference to loss of his merchandize to pirates in 1412. The goods he
exported were predominantly sheep, lamb, and calf skins, as well as wool,
but occasionally he dealt in cloth; his imports were also atypical and
included materials for his craft (paten wood, nails, and clogs), along
with linen, painted cloths, haberdashery, dyes (madder and woad), glass,
and crockery. He was a supporter of the reform
movement active 1411-15 and it was probably in this context that
he came under attack because of his birth: his father was a foreigner
(as the spelling of his surname suggests), either dead or departed, and
it is not clear whether he was married to James' mother, who was a
Lynn woman. James had to obtain denization papers in 1413, although his
property was still subject to attack during a riot a few months later.
By the end of the decade he had apparently overcome his problems of birth
and political sympathies and was appointed to Lynn's council from 1418
until his death in 1420.

William de Oxneye entered the franchise at Lynn in 1370
and between 1373 and 1387 was several times in the role of tax assessor
or collector, as well as one term as chamberlain, but is otherwise little
in evidence in Lynn records. The 1392-93
customs account provides
the only evidence for his commercial activity. It may be significant
that the ship he selected to transport his cargo was the sole case of
a Yarmouth ship using Lynn's port in this period, for there was an Oxneye
family prominent in Yarmouth in the latter half of the fourteenth and
early fifteenth centuries; in fact, merchant William de Oxneye was one
of Yarmouth's leading townsmen from the 1370s to early fifteenth century
(13 times bailiff). Kinship of the two Williams is a possibility. Note
also that the master of the ship to which Lynn's William assigned his cargo
may have been a member of Yarmouth's Beneyt family of ship-owners and
town rulers.

John Paxman acquired the franchise at Lynn by purchase,
in 1378. John was of the middle rank of burgesses, not holding any
public role of greater responsibility than capital pledge. He also
exported cloth in 1391, and imported lumber, iron, and stones in
the same year. It is not clear what, if any, his relationship was to
mercer Roger Paxman, a more prominent figure in the
town. Roger had purchased the franchise in 1363, already an adult 
having been taxed in Lynn, as a non-burgess, in 1357/58, when his
assessment was below the average. However, his affairs were prospering
enough by 1370 that he was elected both a chamberlain and a jurat; he
spent much of the '70s and '80s in jurat ranks, interrupted notably by
two more terms as chamberlain and two as mayor. Besides the large
investments he was making in international commerce in the 1380s (if
his claims against the Prussian authorities in 1388 are credible), in
1391 he is seen exporting three shipments of cloth, and importing
shipments of timber, tar, ashes, iron, and dried fish. He was dead by
the beginning of the following year.

The Thomas Paynot mentioned in the 1392-93
customs account
was a Lynn man, although whether the father or son, in the case
of the Thomas son of Thomas Paynot who entered the franchise in April
1393, is not easy to say. There is no surviving record of the father
having entered the franchise, although his minor activities in
borough affairs during the 1370s suggests he must have; he is less in
evidence in the '80s although apparently still alive in 1393. The fact
that Thomas junior had to pay for his entrance may suggest he was an
adult who had been trading prior to entering; his father was already
being described as Thomas senior in 1375.

The early career of John Permonter (or Parmenter),
alias Causton, is little documented. His affiliation with the
potentiores during the political conflict tempore
Henry V is suggested by his summons to Chancery in 1415 along with
select other members of the contesting factions, and by the fact
that he was partner to vintner Robert Brunham
(a leader of the potentiores) in importing wine in 1406, the
earliest reference to him. Perhaps he had recently been one of
Brunham's apprentices. In 1416 he was described as a taverner, and
later in life as a vintner and a merchant, and was on several occasions
fined for infringements of the assize of wine. Apart from the fact
that he was scabin of the merchant gild in 1411/12, however, there
is nothing to indicate why precisely he was on the list of men summoned
to Chancery, for he did not enter the ranks of jurats until 1418, after
the political conflict was over. Perhaps this was a reward for his
support of the potentiores' cause, for is not known to have
previously served as chamberlain or councillor, although our lists
of those officers are not complete; but it may simply be a recognition
of his abilities, since he thereafter became one of the most prominent
townsmen. He continued as a jurat until 1438, probably the year of
his death, and was elected to the mayoralty 5 times between 1423 and
1431, and served as alderman of the merchant gild from 1435-37. He
was sufficiently capable that, through a possibly feigned reluctance
to serve, he was able to negotiate
bonuses for his performance as mayor. During the 1430s he was
also one of the leading officers of the Corpus Christi gild.

Robert Pulter purchased the franchise at Lynn in 1363.
It appears to have been he who was fined in 1349 for forestalling poultry
(his surname meaning "poulterer"); certainly he was the Robert Pulter
fined for forestalling fish in 1375. The 1392-93
customs account is
the only document evidencing any involvement in international commerce.
His participation in local administration was not great, although he
served two terms as chamberlain. He died between at some point between
1395 and 1398.

Laurence de Reppes is seen in the records as
early as 1339, when acquiring rents from some Lynn shops, but is not
much in evidence until the mid-1340s. He twice served as chamberlain
(1345/46 and 1357/58) and was jurat in 1346/47, 1350/51 (as elector),
and for most of the period between 1358 and 1368. As Laurence Bon
of [South] Repps, he and his children were in 1353 released by Alan Reyner
of nearby Roughton from any claim of being Alan's villeins. His trade
was as a tanner, but he was also involved in wholesale commerce, and
in 1356 was summoned to attend a national merchant assembly.
His commercial activities involved not only hides  he shipping
8 lasts from Newcastle-on-Tyne to Lynn in 1368, when described as
a merchant  but also other goods, for in 1346 he was accused
of forestalling 2 lasts of herring, and on more than one occasion of
breaking the assize of ale.

Thomas Ryghtwys senior was mayor of Lynn
in 1351/52 and served among the jurats for much of the period between
1342 to 1362  the last specific mention of him was at Michaelmas 1361,
and he probably died during the year that followed. His name appears in
the local tax list of 1319, but his assessment was only a third of the
average; by contrast, in 1357/58 his assessment was five times the average,
and in the national subsidy of 1332 it had been double the average. Not
only was he a merchant, he owned his own ship: in 1336 he was in possesion
of the St. Mary Cog, and in 1344 co-owned the ship Elyne
which however had just been sunk by the Scots while in royal service.
In 1333 he was fined for forestalling fish, and the same as regards timber
in 1359. In 1336 he was importing wine from Bordeaux, and in 1347 he sold
3 tuns of wine to the King's Butler; while in 1349 he exported cloth. His
brother John, who seems to have been involved in the fishing trade along
with another brother Robert, had been a jurat for most of the 1340s and
died in the summer of 1361 (possibly he and Thomas senior were victims
of the second major outbreak of plague). John's son Thomas Ryghtwys
junior in that year succeeded William de Swanton
as the borough coroner, having already entered jurat ranks in 1359,
remaining therein until his premature death in 1365. Thomas senior's
son Robert (junior) appeared set to succeed to his father's interests,
taking up the franchise in 1359 and entering jurat ranks in1363, but
he too died leaving underage children, in 1371.

Robert de Salisbury's modest shipment registered in
the 1392-93 customs
account was preceded by another cargo of cloth a
little larger and more valuable in 1391, but he shows no signs of having
been among the top rank of Lynn's merchants. He purchased the franchise
in 1378 and first appears among the jurats ten years later, but only
became established there in the early 1400s. He married a daughter or
the widow of vintner Robert atte Lathe (mayor 1375/76), acquired through
that connection a house equipped as a brewery (a tavern?), which became
Salisbury's residence, and was himself in 1391 and 1425 fined for breaking
the assize of ale. Perhaps he also traded in furs, as his merchant's mark
was an animal (possibly a squirrel) ringed by a motto. He retired from
the jurats in 1424, due to age and infirmity, and died five years later.
His son Thomas, who had looked after him in old age, became one of
the most prominent of Lynn's merchants and local administrators during
the reign of Henry VI.

William de Silesden was a 1377 franchise entrant at
Lynn and was referred to on different occasions as "merchant" and
"brasier". He was not within the leading ranks of borough society and
performed his citizen's duty only through one stint as chamberlain.
Evidence of activity in the import/export trade is almost non-existent
beyond the 1392-93
customs account, although
in 1398 he is seen selling a large quantity of tiles (his will of 1410
mentions a tile-kiln of which he was part-owner) and he was occasionally
fined for breaking the assizes of ale and wine.

John de Snailwell purchased entrance to the Lynn
franchise in 1388, but left little mark on local records, despite having
been resident in Lynn at the time of the 1379 poll tax.

Thomas de Sparham entered the franchise at Lynn in 1364,
after completing his apprenticeship with merchant John de Fyncham. Unlike
his master, he never rose into the upper ranks of urban society, though
it is difficult to say whether one reason for this was the injuries he
suffered during violent confrontations between townsmen and
Bishop Despenser's retinue in 1377, which led the borough government
to negotiate a settlement with the Bishop and subsequently to assign
Thomas a 5-year annuity in compensation (most of which he reassigned
during the next two years to merchants of Yarmouth and Norwich, his
creditors).

John Spicer had been one of
John de Brandon's apprentices, completing his
term in 1384, when he entered the franchise at Lynn. Shortly afterwards
he married a daughter of merchant Geoffrey de Tolbooth, a two-times mayor
and former Deputy Butler. John was very active in the customs service,
intially partnering Brandon as the collectors of wool custom (1398/99),
although his most notable role was as Deputy Butler in Lynn for most of
the period between 1399 and 1419. He had joined jurat ranks by 1411,
becoming one of the leading opponents of the reform party, and remained
there until 1423, serving as mayor for three consecutive terms
(1420-23)  dying within the few months following. To his various
exports recorded in the 1392-93
customs account, the 1391
account add flax; his imports are not evidenced. The prominence of
agricultural produce among his exports may receive added significance
from the fact that he was farming
the town mill in 1407/08, and the previous year had purchased a millstone
from the merchant gild.

The two Attestyles whose trading is evidenced in the 1392-93
customs account
were members of a moderately prominent Lynn family that flourished
at the end of the fourteenth and in the early fifteenth centuries.
John atte Style appears to have been the elder, standing
as guarantor for Thomas atte Style when he entered
the franchise in February 1392. Perhaps both were sons of a
John atte Style who entered the franchise in 1369 and had some association
with the Wesenham family. That freeman's status
was no pre-requisite for mercantile activity is indicated by the fact
that Thomas was importing (herring, iron, canvas) in 1391, and his
commercial activities continued to be documented up to 1395. John's
activities are documented from 1388 only to 1392  he importing
herring, lumber, iron, tar, and ashes  despite the fact that he
lived to 1407, whereas Thomas was dead before the close of 1401. Neither
man played much of a role in local government.

John de Sustede obtained the franchise in 1346
through apprenticeship to William de Bitering,
and may have been descended from the John de Suthstede junior
taxed at Lynn in 1319. In 1354 he was a partner with members of
the Cokesford and
Braunch families in the export of ale
and grain; the following year he was licensed to export further large
quantities of the same. In 1349, after acknowledging an offence
against a fellow burgess, he gave 3 tuns of wine as a peace offering.
Involvement in the wine trade may also be suggested by his role as
Deputy Butler at Lynn 1359-61. He put in his time as chamberlain
1350/51 and was jurat for most of the period between 1353 and
1361, as well as serving as bailiff of the tolbooth in 1360/61. This
despite having obtained in 1354 a life exemption from offices and
juries. He is not heard of after 1361, and likely fell victim to the
renewed plague.

John de Sutton was probably the John son of
Walter de Sutton of Sutton (a few miles west of Ely) who entered the
franchise at Lynn in 1378, after completing his apprenticeship with
merchant Thomas Curson. In the early 1390s he held some very minor
posts of responsibility within the community, but never rose into the
upper ranks of borough society.

Willliam de Swanton entered the
merchant gild in 1340 and was important enough to be summoned
by the king to attend a Merchant Assembly in 1356. The following
year his local tax assessment of 15s. was well above the average
of 6s.1d. His earliest known position of responsibility was as
collector of a royal tax in 1337  a thankless role he was
required to repeat the following two years. Financial acumen may
also be reflected in the fact that he was called on twice to serve as
borough chamberlain (1337/38 and 1343/44). He was in jurat ranks
for most of the period from 1342/43 to 1360/61, and served as mayor
in 1355/56  when his official duties included having built a barge
commissioned by the king  and as borough coroner thereafter until
his death in 1361. He was probably a victim of plague. He left behind
daughters (apparently underage) and a pregnant wife, Alice, who was still
alive at the time of the poll tax in 1379. It was to Alice that all
his property was left, which included a tenement on opposite sides
of Webster Row, on the banks of
the Purfleet, where he had a quay, and four shops in
Pillory Lane. His posthumous child
was probably Andrew de Swanton, who was jurat during much of the period
1389-1434, and borough coroner ca.1400-21.

The Swerdestone family, its name derived from Swardeston in Norfolk,
was prominent in Lynn for much of the fourteenth century.
Alan de Swerdestone appears in the records as
early as 1292 and was already prosperous, for his possessions were
valued for taxation purposes at £80; although the valuations were
lower in 1297 and 1298, his tax assessment remained well above the average,
and subsequent valuations (1299-1303) were £100 or more. We know
nothing of his business, however, other than that in 1303 he sold a large
amount of timber (probably imported from northern Europe) to royal
commissioners charged with making pontoons, and in 1309 he was exporting
wool. Alan had served as a scabin of the merchant gild from 1299 to 1303,
and as borough chamberlain in 1305/06. He had died by February 1315,
leaving a widow Theophany (d.1316), and bequests to sons John, Richard
and William. Theophany's will mentions another of her sons, Thomas,
perhaps by an earlier marriage. However, he may be the Thomas de
Swerdestone who entered the merchant gild in 1324 and served as
its scabin in 1341/42. He was chamberlain in 1339/40 and 1341/42, jurat
the following year and again from 1346 to 1348. He briefly (1341-43) held
a post in the royal customs service. We know nothing significant about
his commercial activities. It seems likely he was a victim of the plague.
Alan's son John de Swerdestone was far more prominent in
the borough, but likewise succumbed to the Black Death. He was one of four
Lynn men to count as the greater wool-merchants of numerous towns summoned
by the king in 1322 to counsel him on reform of the staple organization.
Surviving records mainly show him involved in the victualling trade,
however: in 1333 he and Hugh Betele, as "king's
merchants" took grain to Norway to trade for fish, and the following year
they similarly (in their own ships) exported ale and grain; in 1336 he
and Betele, together with Simon de Bitering
obtained from the king a 3-year safeconduct while trading in England
and abroad. Hugh was married to John's daughter Margery, and John
lived just long enough to act as Hugh's executor at the beginning of 1349.
John had some involvement in the royal customs service, first in 1315 as
the sheriff's deputy supervising the export of victuals from Lynn, with
particular view to ensuring none were shipped to enemy countries, but from
1320 to 1322 and again 1332-33 and 1340-41 as a collector of wool custom.
He gave more service to his town: although he appears among the jurats only
on three occasions (the earliest being in 1322/23), he was elected mayor
for six terms between 1323 and 1347, and for part of a seventh when William
de Sechford died in office in 1336. The borough returned him to seven
parliaments between 1324 and 1341. He also served the merchant gild: as
scabin from 1317 to 1321 and as alderman 1340-49. He was survived by his
wife Muriel and sons Nicholas and John. John de Swerdestone
junior appears to have been the elder, having entered the
merchant gild in 1337 and being the inheritor of his father's principal
residence. He perhaps also took the lead in the family business; in 1358
he was given licence to export grain to the Low Countries or Gascony. He
served the borough as chamberlain in 1349/50, and jurat in 1350/51 and
1352-54, but was clearly not as important in town affairs as his father
and is last heard of in 1360. Nicholas de Swerdestone is
more in evidence, but neither could he equal his father's accomplishments.
He became a freeman at Lynn upon the death of his father and he served two
terms as chamberlain and was a jurat from 1359-70 and in 1378/79. He
was returned to five parliaments between 1361 and 1379, but in the
event did not sit in one (1372). He was also the borough coroner for an
unknown period in the 1370s. This career ended in disgrace: in 1379 he
was accused of conspiring with the chaplain of
St. Nicholas' to have the chapel given
the status of a parish church, an initiative which led to discord among
the townspeople; the chaplain had obtained papal letters to this effect
which were subsequently annulled by papal judges, the borough authorities
evidently going to some effort to quash the separatist movement. For his
part in this trouble, Nicholas was removed from the coronership in December
1379, and the following August was disfranchised and the burgesses were
prohibited from trading, socializing or even speaking with him. The last
heard of him is on two occasions in 1381 and 1382 when he and the chaplain
failed to appear before a court of the bishop of Norwich to defend
themselves in a charge of having pursued the matter. The family name
disappeared from Lynn.

Bartholomew Systerne's earliest appearance in borough
records is in 1398/99, when he travelled to Boston and London on
community business; he performed a similar duty for Lynn in 1401/02,
although only as far as Norwich on this occasion. A merchant, he is
seen in 1405 and 1406 exporting shipments of cloth, as well as malt
and peas, either solo or in partnership with Ralph
Bedingham and John Lakinghithe, and
in 1412 lost to pirates a cargo being brought from Norway. He may
have been the son of the William Systerne who was exporting cloth and
importing herring in 1391. And John Systerne, for whose entrance to
the franchise in 1403 Bartholomew acted as pledge, was likely a younger
brother; if so, John's entrance by patrimony would suggest Bartholomew
himself was likely born in Lynn. His earliest roles in the administrative
system were as leet affeeror (1400), searcher of ships (1402-05), and
scabin of the merchant gild (1406/07); during the last decade of his
life he was the borough's coroner. He is also found as a churchwarden
of St. Margaret's in 1419, when he requested to be released from the
post, because the church coffers had been drained by belfry repairs
and he did not wish to have to finance further work from his own pocket;
however, he probably remained in office, for the corporation heard his
plea and took steps to raise alms to support the church. He had entered
the ranks of the jurats by 1411  his position in the listings
showing that he was one of the most junior members. Although he was
appointed later that year to the special
committee to re-audit financial accounts of past administrations, he
was clearly identified with the potentiores and boycotted that
committee along with fellow jurats once it was clear which way the wind
was blowing. Since his elder son had only taken up the franchise in
1426, by patrimony (indicative of recent adulthood), Bartholomew may
only have been around 50 when he died in 1429; this premature death
robbed him of a shot at the mayoralty, he having just reached the
upper-middle ranks of the jurats from which mayors tended to be
elected.

Reginald de Systerne's surname appears in Lynn in
the 1290s (as de Sidesterne, perhaps suggesting a connection with
Sidestrand in Norfolk, rather than one with the Systons further afield),
and holders came to prominence at various times in Lynn  such as
Bartholomew Systerne. Reginald purchased
membership in the merchant gild in 1328 and later in the year was fined
for using non-standard weights and for breaking the assize of ale. In
1354 he was exporting malt, flour, salt, and cloth to Norway and Germany,
with the intent of bringing back a cargo of fish; a few years later his
local tax assessment was well above the average. Whatever his business
was, it also brought him in contact with London, for in 1364 he was being
sued by a London hatter for an alleged debt of 200; the charge
may be suspect, since two jurors in the case complained to the
London authorities of an attempt by a goldsmith first to bribe them, then
intimidate them, into bringing a false verdict in favour of the hatter.
Reginald served as chamberlain in 1334/35 and as jurat in 1347/48,
1350/51, and during most of the period 1356-62.

Richard Thewyt acquired the franchise at Lynn (1385)
through apprenticeship. His mercantile activities between 1391-96 show
him exporting cloth and importing herring, wax, flax, iron, and canvas.
He was of the middle rank in burgess society and his only office in local
government came during the reform administration of 1411/12, after whose
collapse he is rarely mentioned again.

Although he entered the merchant gild in 1328, little evidence remains
of John de Thirsford's commercial activities.
He served as bailiff 1349/50, was sent as one of the borough representatives
to parliament in 1350, and held the office of chamberlain 1351/52,
but is not known to have been a jurat. In 1351 he was a pledge for William,
the son of Roger de Thirsford, when he became a burgess; William (a
merchant) may have been John's brother.

That Richard de Thorpe was already active in commerce
before he entered the franchise at Lynn in 1378 is suggested by the fact
that he paid his entrance fee in the form of 800 herring. Herring were
among the goods he was importing in 1391, along with linen, canvas, iron,
and lumber; his exports recorded between 1387 and 1394 were cloth and
woolfells. By 1385 he was renting from the merchant gild a tenement with
a quay on the Ouse and a small property, probably for business use, at
the common quay; from at least 1398 he was also leasing from the borough
several shops at the market end of
Damgate. He was a jurat for most of
the period 1393-1416 and a constable of the Lynn staple during parts of
the '90s. Towards the end of his life he may have suffered financial
reverses  additional to his loss of merchandize to pirates in 1412
 for by the end of that decade he was in arrears for the lease of
the Damgate shops and continued so until his son took over responsibility
for the property in 1424; by which time, Richard was, if not already
dead, aged and incapable. He may have left debts, for ca.1431 his widow
was receiving alms from the merchant gild. Ship's master
William de Thorpe may have been a member of the same
family.

John de Tidde entered the franchise at Lynn in 1387,
probably at a relatively late stage in life, since he was already being
differentiated by "senior" from another of the same name. He is not much
in evidence in local records.

The John de Tilney mentioned in the 1392-93
customs account
is difficult to pin down as there were several men of this name
living in Lynn around this period. The
John Tilney junior who supported the
efforts of the reform party through his legal training and ties to the
Bishop of Norwich would likely have been too young to be trading in 1392,
and shows no evidence of commercial activity. Another townsman of this
name was described as a brewer in the 1379 lay subsidy. The most likely
candidate, however, is the draper who entered the franchise in 1377,
just possibly a descendant of an earlier John de Tilney who was exporting
cloth from Lynn in 1349. The cloth exporter of 1392 also imported herring
in 1391.

Thomas Trussebut was only a few years into his merchant's
career at the time his various export shipments were documented in the
customs account
of 1392-93; he having entered the franchise at Lynn
in 1385, after apprenticeship to merchant John Lok.
Customs records of 1391-95 show him heavily involved in the cloth export
trade, while importing herring, garlic, canvas and flax. By 1400 he had
his own ship. Much of the wealth he accumulated was invested in
real estate in numerous rural areas in the vicinity of Lynn. He did not
play a large role in local administration, except for the position of
coroner from which he was removed in 1441 on grounds of old age and
infirmity.

Although there appears to be no surviving record of
Walter Urry's entrance to the Lynn franchise, his term
as scabin of the merchant gild 1386-88 (and again 1396/97) and his brief
presence among the jurats in 1388/89 and 1391/92, suggests a moderate
importance in the town  possibly partly through family reputation
(merchant John Urry having been mayor in 1358/59, and Ralph Urry
the Bishop's steward at Lynn in the 1360s). Walter was commercially
active by at least 1385, when his merchandize was arrested in Prussia.

John Wace came from East Rudham (a few miles north-east
of Lynn), and was apprenticed to Lynn mercer Ralph de Colkirke. He
paved the way to setting himself up in business by entering the franchise
in 1371. Possibly some of his relatives had already preceded his
migration to Lynn, since one of the citizens guaranteeing John would pay
his freeman's entrance fee was mercer John de Rudham, and Wace later took
on kinsman Thomas Rudham as his apprentice; furthermore he had relations
in the mercantile Dunton family in Lynn (although perhaps by marriage).
His mercantile activities in the 1390s are well-documented: he exported
cloth, grain, herring, and salt, and imported dried fish, canvas, iron,
lumber, paper, wax, ashes, and flax. He was a jurat during much of
the 1380s and '90s, culminating in his mayoralty of 1396/97, after which
he retired from local government, although in 1398 was a royal commissioner
to organize a naval expedition against pirates plaguing the east coast.
He died in 1399.

William Walden was described as a cordwainer in 1391, when
the leet court fined him for breaking
the ale assize. This aspect of his commercial activities was in evidence
at his earliest appearance in the records, in 1375, when he was fined for
regrating ale. Whatever the makeup
of his business activities, he was doing well enough to have two servants,
living with him, at the time of the poll tax in 1379. It was not until
1388, however, that he decided it advisable to purchase the benefits of
freeman status. He continued to expand his horizons: in 1405 he was
exporting large quantities of barley, oats, and wheat; and in 1412 he
was trading with the Hanse and Norway. Politically, he was an outsider
until the reform movement led by
Bartholomew Petypas; he served as chamberlain under one of its
administrations (1412/13) and was closely enough tied to the reformers
to be twice summoned to Chancery as one of the faction's spokespersons,
in 1412 and 1415. After the failure of the reform movement, he was
excluded from positions of authority, but appears to have continued to
cling to his convictions. For at an assembly on March 5, 1421 when the
levying of a new tax was on the agenda, he spoke up to urge that nothing
be assessed on the poor, except for those able to contribute; the clerk
made the point of describing him as "friend of the poor", suggesting he
was already known for his championship of their interests. Possibly
this was what led to him being elected as a common councillor for
the following year, but his stint in office went no further. The only
further mentions of him during the 1420s are in the leet court, when
fined for breaking the ale assize (described as a brewer), and later for
blocking the road with dung on several occasions. The last mention of him
is in 1430, when fined for failing to appear at the leet.

Robert de Walpole entered the franchise at Lynn in 1372,
having completed an apprenticeship under his father, mercer
Thomas de Walpole. In 1389 he was described as a draper. Later in
the same month when he made his single export shipment of 1392 he was
elected as chamberlain, never playing any more prominent role in
borough government. Despite has specialization as draper/mercer, this
was the only occasion he is seen dealing in cloth. In 1399 and 1400 he
was exporting wool and woolfells. In 1390 and 1391 he was importing woad,
herring, and wax.

Although the surname Walsingham was well-represented in Lynn during
the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries (in the latter period
providing 2 mayors), although not necessarily being a single family, and
a Robert Walsingham vintner flourished 1415/1448, I find no other mention
at Lynn of the Roger de Walsingham mentioned in the
1392-93 customs account.

Since an Adam de Walsoken was one
of the more prominent of Lynn's merchants, twice mayor, before 1349, and
a Walter Walsoken who entered the franchise in 1357 after completing his
apprenticeship became a jurat in the 1370s, it is not impossible that
the Adam who was mentioned in the
customs account of 1392-93
was a descendant (although the earlier Adam's will mentions no sons);
but since there are no references in borough records of late
fourteenth century to an Adam de Walsoken, it is
unlikely he was a resident of Lynn.

John Waryn was an established member of the merchant
community of Lynn, having entered the franchise in 1365, served as jurat
for most of the period 1376 to 1395 (when he died), and as mayor three
times during the 1380s. He was already engaged in international commerce
before he entered the franchise in 1365, having in 1364 imported salt
from Brittany and exported ale, beans and peas to Flanders; he was taxed
in Lynn, as a non-freeman, in 1357. This could explain why why he had
to pay for his entrance, but an equally likely reason is that he was
an immigrant. He had become involved in the cloth trade by the 1390s
and probably earlier  the lay subsidy of 1379 describing him as
a mercer; but he was still quite diversified  as his several
shipments recorded in the 1392-93
customs account shows.
His imports included dried fish, wine (he holding a tavern near St. Margaret's
and shops or taverns on the quayside) and probably iron. In 1384 he,
Adam Waryn and others had lost a jointly-owned cargo
of wine from Bordeaux to shipwreck. He and Adam  who came from
Aylsham (a few miles north of Norwich)  were probably related,
although how closely is unknown. Adam was evidently the younger, having
entered the franchise in 1377 (John acting as one of his guarantors),
and serving as jurat frequently between 1386 and 1403. Beside his
involvement in exporting cloth, Adam imported herring and was several
times fined for breaking the assizes of ale and wine. He and John
jointly leased from the community, two years after Adam entered
the franchise, a property opposite St. Margarets: possibly a business
establishment, although perhaps a joint residence, for the two men were
listed adjacently in the lay subsidy of 1379.

Thomas de Waterden was a merchant by apprenticeship
and perhaps the most prominent member of an important local family, being
already established in the ranks of the jurats and later to serve as mayor
of the borough twice and as mayor of the Lynn staple. He would have been
in his early 40s at the time of his export activity evidenced in the
1392-93 customs account.
As this and other customs documents of the 1390s and early 1400s show,
he was heavily involved in the cloth export trade, importing in return
herring, tar, oil, lumber, iron and other goods from northern Europe. He
lost two shipments to pirates in 1412. He was one of Lynn's jurats for
most of the period from 1383 to 1424, except for the period of the reform
administration, of which he was one of the leading opponents. Although his
exit from the jurats was a case of retirement, due to old age, there is no
indication he lived much longer. Thomas' master had been mercer
Robert de Waterden, Thomas apparently being the first
of a series of apprentices we know Robert took on, probably in January
1364 (since Thomas completed the apprenticeship and entered Lynn's
franchise in January 1371). The two were probably kin, but the nature
of their relationship is unknown. Robert may have been the Robert son
of William Hard  Hard being an alternate surname associated with
some members of the family in the fifteenth century  who entered
the franchise in January 1364, having completed his apprenticeship to
mercer Ralph de Colkirke. Robert was a jurat for much of the period
between 1377 and 1399, when he died. He was also Thomas' predecessor
in the office of mayor of the Lynn staple (1391-92, 1397-99). In 1375
he was exporting grain to Norway. His exports during the '90s were cloth,
wool and woolfells, but we know nothing of his imports.

John de Wentworth is another example of the rising
young stars of the 1390s. He entered Lynn's franchise in 1382 and during
the 1390s is seen exporting cloth (his 1391 exports far outstripped those
listed in the 1392-93
customs account,
being valued at £238.13s.4d)
and importing salt; in 1406 he was importing wine. In 1403 he was sued
by a London haberdasher. He entered jurat ranks in 1390 and remained
there for most, if not all, of the period until 1413; during much of
the 1390s he was also the town's coroner, and during the following decade
served thrice as mayor. This both brought him into head-to-head conflict
with the Bishop, over jurisdictional issues, and made him one of
the chief targets of corruption charges levelled by the reform party.
He it was who, in 1412, complained to the Bishop about the reform party
expanding their own power base by giving the franchise to lesser members
of the community, some mere shoemakers or tailors "worth only 1d." He
probably died ca.1417.

John de Wesenham was apparently a member of a large,
prominent and long-standing family of Lynn. A man of the same name had
been one of the richest merchants of Lynn in the 1340s and served as
King's Butler. Yet, if the John mentioned in the
customs account
of 1392/93 was the man who entered the franchise
in 1387, the ancestry may not have been direct, since both John
and his father, William de Wesenham, had purchased freeman's status,
rather than earning it by birth. Yet evidently he was already wealthy,
judging from the level of investment in the import/export trade, witnessed
by several customs accounts between 1391-96: he was importing herring,
iron, and wax, and exporting cloth. This is further evidenced in accounts
of 1405-06, when he is seen partnering with William Lok,
William Style, John Brandon
and others), in the export of cloth and import of lumber, iron, eels, and
herring. In 1407 and 1431 (and perhaps the intervening period) he was
renting from the merchant gild land near the public quay for storage of
lumber. He lost two shipments of imports from Norway and Dacia to pirates
and shipwreck, respectively, in 1412. In 1428 one of his apprentices was
trading for him in Prussia. Having entered jurat ranks by 1411, he later
served twice as mayor and as alderman of the merchant gild 1424-33,
probably dying in the mid-1430s.

John de Wormegay was probably a Lynn man, a member of
a moderately prominent local family that also went by the surname Wyth.
A man of this name who had been jurat frequently between 1357 and 1376
was still alive in 1391, but retired and therefore unlikely to have been
the John mentioned in the 1392-93
customs account.

John de Yorke mercer purchased entrance to the Lynn
franchise in 1387 and was another of the middle-ranking freemen in
the same mold  so far as the sparse references to him allow us
to say  as Creyk and
Baldeswell, for example.